![]() In contrast, if you were walking in a dark alley at night and a stranger began chasing you, both your emotional and thinking areas of the brain would be in agreement that the situation is dangerous, and it’s time to flee!įear reaction starts in the brain and spreads through the body to make adjustments for the best defense, or flight reaction. When you enter a haunted house during Halloween season, for example, anticipating a ghoul jumping out at you and knowing it isn’t really a threat, you are able to quickly relabel the experience. When our “thinking” brain gives feedback to our “emotional” brain and we perceive ourselves as being in a safe space, we can then quickly shift the way we experience that high arousal state, going from one of fear to one of enjoyment or excitement. ![]() Our studies and clinical interactions, as well as those of others, suggest that a major factor in how we experience fear has to do with the context. We are psychiatrists who treat fear and study its neurobiology. But what makes the difference between getting a “rush” and feeling completely terrorized? So, it makes sense that the high arousal state we experience during a scare may also be experienced in a more positive light. Thinking about the circuitry of the brain and human psychology, some of the main chemicals that contribute to the “fight or flight” response are also involved in other positive emotional states, such as happiness and excitement. Whether we love or hate to experience fear, it’s hard to deny that we certainly revere it – devoting an entire holiday to the celebration of fear. Fear may be as simple as a cringe of an antenna in a snail that is touched, or as complex as existential anxiety in a human. ![]() It is a fundamental, deeply wired reaction, evolved over the history of biology, to protect organisms against perceived threat to their integrity or existence.
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